Would you break up by sending a text?

Not only do many relationships start with a text, but some end that way.

Pop singer Katy Perry recently revealed in a magazine interview that British comedian Russell Brand asked her for a divorce via text, and Brand apparently has company. A new survey of 1,500 daters ages 21 to 50, provided to USA TODAY, found that 59% would or might break up with someone they are casually dating via text; 24% would or might end an exclusive relationship that way.

"It removes confrontation," says Naomi Baron, a linguistics professor at American University in Washington who studies electronically mediated communication. "You don't have to have a big knock-down-drag-out fight, but you also don't get that experience of having to interact in uncomfortable situations - face-to-face live situations."

Technology has spurred a new breed of netiquette do's and don'ts. The survey, commissioned by two niche dating websites, ChristianMingle.com and JDate.com, found that on a date, 96% of singles keep their phones out of sight - yet 67% say they find a way to check them.

"It's amazing how quickly the norms become established, because when people violate them, people take offense," says Daniel Post Senning, 35, the great-great-grandson of etiquette maven Emily Post.

Senning of Burlington, Vt., is "single and dating" and says he has tried to answer some of these questions in his book Emily Post's Manners in a Digital World, which came out in April.

Tone doesn't come through in a text, and that can lead to misunderstandings, especially when a comment gets misconstrued and "your text may not get returned," suggests cyber-relations and netiquette expert Julie Spira of Los Angeles. She's author of the 2009 book The Perils of Cyber-Dating, which includes a chapter on netiquette.

The risk of misinterpreted texts is especially high in new relationships.

"There's so little you know at that point," Spira says. "You make all these digital assumptions that it's one-size-fits-all - and it's not."